The Twins finished off this four game set with the Indians with a frustrating loss highlighted by a Marwin Gonzalez double with Ehire Adrianza being thrown out at home and Carlos Santana crushing a grand slam in extra innings. Cleveland will head home tied with the Twins atop the AL Central.
Berrios: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 68.8% strikes (66 of 96 pitches)
Bullpen: 4 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
Home Runs: None
Multi-Hit Games: Rosario (2-for-4), Arraez (2-for-3), Cron (2-for-4)
Top 3 WPA: Gonzalez (0.21), Arraez (0.18), Rosario (0.14)
Bottom 3 WPA: Rogers (-0.48), Schoop (-0.22), Kepler (-0.18)
Berrios struggles out of the gate
This game started with the Twins ace Jose Berrios on the mound looking for redemption from his last time out. This start certainly didn’t begin the way Berrios wanted with a first inning home run from Greg Allen, followed by a walk and an RBI double from Yasiel Puig.
Berrios allowed another run in the third inning on a seeing eye RBI single from Carlos Santana to make it 3-1 Indians. Jose Berrios definitely did not have his best stuff yet again but was able to work through six solid innings.
Twins offense nowhere to be found
The Minnesota Twins came into this game with an advantage going up against Cleveland’s number five starter Aaron Civale who was making just his third career MLB start. The Twins just could not get the bats going. The only early run was from a Rosario double and then two sacrifice flyballs.
The Twins fight back to tie it but another frustrating ending occurs
After scoring just one run all day, the Twins fought back in the ninth inning against Brad Hand with a chance to walk it off. Eddie Rosario started the inning with a double, Arraez singled to make it 3-2 and then Cron singled to give Marwin a chance to end it. I’ll just let this tweet do the talking.
Gonzalez came up clutch with an RBI double but the momentum was immediately killed when third base coach Tony Diaz decided to send Adrianza and he was about by about a mile. The catcher would have had time to catch the ball, go fill his car with gas, stop for lunch and then come back to home plate and Adrianza still would have been out. It was the second time this series where there was a send from third and it was not a close play at all. You are all welcome to vent in the comments.
With the momentum back on the Indians side, the tenth inning went sideways for Minnesota. Rogers gave up a single, walked Lindor on four pitches and then a well- placed bunt single loaded the bases for Carlos Santana. You probably thought “hey it might be all right because Rogers is elite.” Well, Santana crushed a grand slam to give the Indians a 7-3 lead and crush our spirits.
Cleveland takes the series and leaves Minnesota with a first place tie.
The Twins desperately needed a split at the least in this series. Cleveland was coming at them like an avalanche but starting pitching struggles mixed with untimely hitting came at the worst possible time in the season. The Twins will head to Milwaukee for a two-game set while Cleveland will host Boston for three. The Twins now have to hope to take care of business until they meet up with Cleveland again.